Unit/Lesson Planning and Backward Design

Unit and lesson planning can be a daunting task for new teachers. It is a difficult task to deliver a lesson, a more difficult task to design an effective lesson, and perhaps an even more intimidating task to create a cohesive, effective unit that meets curricular standards. In my experience planning appeared easy and a mere formality. However, with some experience I noticed that lesson planning is not easy, nor is it effective if rushed. To create effective unit and lesson plans took ages with hours spent on revising lessons to make them more cohesive within the unit. But instead of spending all this time forcing lessons to work together, why not start with a common goal?

Backward Design
This strategy for developing unit (or lesson) plans starts at the end. That is, the planning process begins by deciding what you want the students to have learned at the end of the unit or lesson. As educators, we have a predetermined list of outcomes to choose from, the curriculum. In unit planning, educators can choose to begin with an overall or specific outcome. Each lesson, activity, guiding question or assessment activity should move toward that goal. But before we get further into backward design and the process of building a plan, you might be asking what the purpose of all this work is. Why go through all this formal planning when you're fully capable of delivering content without it?

Created by Mark A. Hicks
markix.com
For educational use only.

The Benefits of Unit and Lesson Planning
- Proper unit planning makes your lessons defensible, this is particularly important for new teachers or any teacher facing a performance review
- Unit planning should link your lessons into a cohesive group
- Prevents 'overteaching' where an educator might try to cover so many topics that the students walk away without a true understanding of anything
- Prevents 'underteaching' where the students are doing activities but the lack of a tangible goal means they don't get much out of it
- Guides feedback. Often educators have so much feedback to give that it can be overwhelming, sticking to an overall objective helps focus the feedback so students can actually improve in a few key areas
- Assists colleagues. While it may be unreasonable to expect substitute teachers to cover everything the regular teacher would, lesson plans and unit plans should be detailed enough that anyone can deliver them with some success. Unit plans can also be shared with peers who may be new teachers or looking to try something new in the classroom.
- Provides structure and routine in the classroom

Created by Dr. Nancy Francis, Brock University
For educational use only.

The Process
Okay, unit plans are a good idea, but how do I actually do it? Well we've covered the very beginning with backward design. From here, there are a variety of strategies but I'll focus on one designed for physical education.
1. Determine the curricular goal of the lesson
- Done using backward design
2. Select the goal for each lesson (should include the unit goal and potentially one more)
- The secondary goal should not be forced and only used if it's a natural fit
3. Determine the movement form (in other domains this may be the type of activity)
- How will the students meet the goal of the lesson? Through reading, a lecture, independent research, etc.
4. Movement themes (in other domains this could be overarching themes like: cause and effect, gender inequality, overarching principles)
- The theme should guide teacher feedback and questions
5. Review skills
- What skills should the students already have that are needed to complete this lesson. This can guide your pretest, warm-up or review
6. New skills
- What SPECIFIC skills will the students learn? The curricular goals are too broad, this portion narrows the goal down for a particular lesson.
7. Life skills
- Life skills are part of the physical education curriculum and must be taught through other objectives. In other domains these skills are either explicitly in the curriculum or can include the character development goals.
8. Teaching strategy
- Many may (and should!) be used within a lesson and unit

These steps are adapted from lesson plan outlines provided by Dr. Nancy Francis at Brock University.

An example of Lesson Planning using Backward Design

 

Posted by: Ross Morrison McGill on December 9, 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPPkwfLbzkM

Notice:
- Lesson objective are stated early and grounded in curriculum
- Engagement portion draws on preexisting knowledge (review skills)
- Keywords relate to objectives, in the process above they would be similarly guided by themes
- Teaching strategy has to be determined, in this case broadly as student or teacher led. Notice that each activity can have a different teaching strategy.

Conclusion
Planning is important. Whether it's to defend our teaching methods or improve student learning, planning is the first step to being an effective educator. Planning is challenging. Sure, creating activities and filling a period with action is easy but planning a curriculum based unit with cohesive lesson plans that maximize the potential for student learning is exceedingly difficult. There is an answer. Backward design helps guide lessons, eliminates time spent forcing lessons to work together, ensures curricular expectations are being met and helps reduce time spent planning without sacrificing quality. Using this design method you can be a better educator!

References

Finley, Todd. Planning the best curriculum unit ever. Edutopia. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/planning-best-curriculum-unit-ever-todd-finley
Dr. Nancy Francis, Brock University. Personal Communication, October, 2015.

What's lost in Work-to-Rule Stage 3?

These tools are all currently lost due to the Elementary school work-to-rule action, which according to CBC includes:

"teachers will not provide comments on report cards, update classroom websites or blogs, complete or distribute class newsletters, participate in in-school meetings or professional learning activities on the next PA day, fill in for an absent teacher, or take on other duties during prep time."

While I do not place any blame for the loss of these non-essential teaching tools on either party they can be useful tools. I’m exploring these topics because the work-to-rule action has brought them into the educational spotlight. I wish only to show that these teaching tools can be extremely valuable to parents, teachers and students.  

Report Card Comments

Report card comments are meant to supplement a student’s grade and explain, to both parent and student, which areas the student is excelling in and which areas need improvement. These comments should be personalized for each student and based on their experiences with the content. Report card comments should also include ‘next steps’ for students, which can help high achieving student’s excel and prevent lower achieving students from being overwhelmed by too many ‘next steps’. Though brief, report card comments can provide a succinct summary of the student’s achievement to the student and their parents; a vital step in the group effort of ensuring maximal student achievement.

Example Ontario 9-12 Report Card
http://quickschools.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/provincialrc.png

Classroom Websites

Classroom websites, blogs, wikis, twitter accounts, etc. can be useful tools for communicating with teachers and students. These tools can be used for a variety of purposes; both organizational and educational. For both students and parents, these sites can serve as 21^st century agendas, listing homework, trips, PA days and events. This information is easily accessible for parents and students and can’t get lost on the way home. Classroom websites and other online tools can also serve educational purposes. Teachers can post review questions, additional practice sheets, study guides, experiments to try at home, teaching videos, real life applications and extending activities. All of these resources can be shared in the classroom but class time is limited. Having these resources posted online means that teachers can share a wider variety of information that students can access in privacy and based on their own needs. It also gives both parents and students access to resources that fit their needs, instead of taking class time to introduce an extending activity that is only relevant to a couple of students. Classroom websites are limited only by the time a teacher can invest; they’re valuable tools for communication and self-directed learning.

Sample Newsletter

Here are some of the more popular classroom websites:

Edmodo

Good Sites (with instructional video)

Weebly

Blogger

Class Newsletters

 

Class newsletters can serve similar purposes to class websites, they help communicate with parents and students. Class newsletters are more limited than websites because they can’t be updated daily. Despite this, newsletters can still inform parents of large assignments, class trips, school events, fundraisers, PA days and breaks. They are perhaps a more traditional way of communicating with a student’s household and therefore may be seen by more parents.

Professional Development

Professional development may seem unnecessary because teachers are well educated before stepping into the classroom for their first day. Although it is true that teachers should be well prepared for their first day the classroom is a fluid and dynamic place. Professional development can include updates to teaching practices that have been discovered by academia since the teacher graduated. It can also include workshops on how to adapt to new curricula or teaching goals. Further, professional development days can be used to learn new teaching or extracurricular programs that teachers may be interested in applying. In the 21^st century, many workshops are devoted to technology in the classroom, both how to use it for student learning and for communication. Without these experiences teachers won’t be constantly learning, adapting and expanding their teaching toolkits unless they do so on their own time.

For teachers looking to continue improving their practice edutopia has a variety of professional development tools.

References

Tri-County Regional School Board. Report Card Comments. A Handbook for Elementary Teachers. Retrieved from: http://www.tcrsb.ca/sis/staff/Report%20Card/Creating%20Strong%20Report%20Card%20Comments%20-%20A%20
Handbook%20for%20Elementary%20Teachers.pdf

Haines, Rebeccah, Keep parents in the loop with classroom websites. Learn NC. Retrieved from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/6639

Teacher development resources. Edutopia. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/teacher-development

Project-Based Learning

"One of the major advantages of project work is that it makes school more like real life." - Sylvia Chard, professor of elementary education, University of Alberta

     Project-based learning is an educational philosophy based on the concept of 'learning by doing'. Although project-based learning is a 21st century buzz-word, 'learning by doing' or 'experiential learning' is as old as education itself. From early First Nations to Socrates and Aristotle and to more contemporary Dewey and Kolb, experiential learning is a tried and true method. Project-based learning gives an end goal or purpose to these experiences.

My experiences with project-based learning:

Heick, Terry. (2013). The Difference Between Doing Projects
And Learning through Projects. Retrieved from
http://www.teachthought.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/
project-based-learning-versus-doing-projects.jpg

     Though limited, I have had some experience on the student end of project-based learning. An environmental unit in high school biology was taught using this method. Students worked in pairs to examine one way human's negatively impact the environment and several ways that we can eliminate or reverse this impact. Every pair had to select a different environmental issue and present it to the class at the end of the unit. By doing this, we not only covered curriculum requirements for understanding a wide variety of issues but also learned (and enacted) ways to combat them. This project achieved many of the aims of project-based learning; meeting curriculum requirements, community involvement, real-life and relevant issues and student-driven learning.
  

The proven advantages of project-based learning are numerous:
- Improved retention of information
- Better performance on standardized tests
- Improved problem solving
- Develop collaboration skills
- More positive student attitudes toward learning
- Inderdisciplinary learning
- Community involvement
- Real life application
The video by The Buck Institute of Education explains some of these benefits.

So how do you do it?
     Project-based learning requires detailed preparation, modifications and reflection. Edutopia has a clear guide for implementing and refining project-based learning which is summarized here. The process begins by determining a large question or task that is relevant and important for your students. Next, the teacher creates a plan for the project which includes molding the project to curriculum, available resources, the community and other subject areas. Next, create a schedule. It should be determined when the project should be done and what work time will be available; the teacher should also set deadlines for smaller steps to keep students on track. The teacher will monitor the progress of students and adjust the parameters or due date as needed; this stage will also include teaching skills that students need along the way (research skills, note taking, information processing and subject specific skills). Both the teacher and students will assess the outcome at each step and after the final submission; encourage self-assessment when possible. Finally, the students should reflect on the experience. Did they struggle as a group? What did they learn? What would they do differently if they were to do it again? Both teachers and students can use this information in the next project. By following these steps, project-based learning can be applied in a variety of classrooms and contexts.

Luca, Jenny. (2012, Oct. 19) PBL Learning Cycle.
Professional Learning Practice. Retrieved from
http://plpnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/PBL-300x274.png

Further Resources

Edutopia resources:
http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning
http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning-guide-implementation
https://www.pinterest.com/edutopia/we-3-pbl/
Experiential learning:
http://firstnationspedagogy.ca/experiential.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiential_learning





References:
Boss, Suzie. Edutopia: Project-Based Learning: What Experts Say. Retreived from http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning-experts
Buck Institute of Education. (2010, December 9) Video. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMCZvGesRz8&spfreload=10
Edutopia: How Does Project-Based Learning Work? Retrieved from www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning-guide-implementation 
First Nations Pedagogy: Experiential. Retrieved from http://firstnationspedagogy.ca/experiential.html
Heick, Terry. (2013). The Difference Between Doing Projects And Learning through Projects